“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” mumbled Karl Erasmus as he paced around his office. A letter sat at his worn wooden desk, every other piece of clutter around it having been cleared to give it the respect it commanded.

  As Burgermaster of the Rockfort Hamlet, Karl was made responsible for handling it. The missive from the capital was nothing but bad news. The local dungeon had awakened, and even worse, there was an army of adventurers headed into town!

  Three-score. That was sixty able-bodied men and women headed to their humble village and expected to arrive any minute. The town had done all it could with the time they were given, but it likely wouldn’t be enough. There wasn’t enough room to house so many people. Even if you counted the empty rooms at the tavern, the hay-matted floor of the stables, and every empty floor and unused blanket in each villager’s house, there still wouldn’t be enough space to accommodate all of those adventurers!

  Not to mention their diets. The farmers of the hamlet worked their bodies hard and ate well to fuel themselves, but their appetites were nothing compared to fabled adventurers. Classes, levels, and all sorts of magical prowess boosted peoples’ appetites sky-high, where they would make even the most gluttonous locals look like a child with food poisoning by comparison.

  Karl let out a sigh. The System could be a curse in that regard, but it could also be a boon. The farmers of the hamlet had their own levels in the aptly-named Class, and were perfectly capable of growing enough food to sate their appetites. That was the only thing Rockfort would be able to provide the adventurers.

  “Those blasted idiots don’t give me any respect!” the Burgermaster grumbled. “Couldn’t even bother to spring for a proper personal carrier, they had to send their missive through the regular mail.”

  Karl walked over to the letter and picked it up again, and scowled at the date it was penned. Exactly two weeks ago. And exactly one and a half weeks before it arrived. “How do they expect me to get things ready for so many people in half a week?!”

  The room seemed to almost grow red around him. Either Karl Erasmus found himself awakening as some sort of fire mage in his sixties, or he was just getting too worked up. Either way, he realized it would be better to go outside than to stay in his office. Otherwise, something was going to break.

  The Burgermaster opened the door and walked towards the building’s exit, just past a similarly aged woman sitting at a desk.

  “Will you be out then, sir?” she asked.

  “Yes, de- I mean, assistant. I shall be back in fifteen minutes or so.”

  “Very well then, sir. I’ll let anyone who stops by know that you’re out.”

  Karl simply nodded and walked out, without looking back at her.

  The Burgermaster didn’t need an assistant. The hamlet was small enough that he knew everyone by name and they could simply approach him for anything they wanted. Still, his wife demanded he get himself an assistant after her last trip to the capital where she saw how their more important bureaucrats operated.

  And since nobody else in the hamlet had much better things to do than fill an utterly useless role, Karl’s wife took the job. At least whenever she had free time. Still, for a hobby, it was much better than what the kids were into. Wandering the forest hunting bears, or gods forbid. Karl hoped that the poster they’d put up on the town bulletin would be enough to dissuade anyone from taking any unneeded risks.

  The Burgermeister lost himself in his thoughts, and soon lost himself in the outskirts of the hamlet. He however remained unbothered. These woods were his back yard, after all, both figuratively and literally. He’d just need to turn around and…

  “Hello there!”

  Karl turned around to see a young man waving at him. He was dressed in chainmail armor that strained against the bulk of his muscles, and a well-fit steel helmet sitting on his head that barely concealed his curly brown hair, with a sheathed sword sitting snugly in a leather scabbard hanging from his side. On either side of him were another man and a woman.

  The other man was stick-thin and dressed from head-to-toe in studded leather. His face was partially concealed by shadows, despite the sun facing the opposite direction, and his mere presence almost made you want to forget about him.

  The woman had black hair and piercing icy-blue eyes. She was dressed in loose brownish-gray robes that settled on her body to reveal padded armor just underneath. Her belt held different vials of multi-colored liquid as well as several scrolls. Her eyes looked bored, yet they darted around the surroundings and took everything in. Even Karl in his entirety.

  “You must be the adventurers, no?” the Burgermaster replied. “We have been expecting you, welcome to our humble hamlet. I do very much hope you will all find Rockfort to be welcoming.” He concluded with a light bow.

  “Wow, if I’d known Mr. Erasmus would be treating us like this, I would’ve become an adventurer even earlier!” The brown-haired man let out a guffaw and nudged the other two with his elbows.

  They couldn’t help but join in and laugh alongside him.

  “How intelligent you three must be, to recognize me as the Burgermaster! And to know my name! I am honored.”

  “No, really, Mr. Erasmus. It’s us.” The woman spoke this time, her cheeks beginning to flush.

  The leather-clad man next to her might have had a similar reaction, but he turned his head before the Burgermaster could get a better look.

  “Hold on,” Karl narrowed his eyes and gave the trio a good, hard look. “I think I recognize those voices… I can’t believe it! It really is you!”

  The four all ran at each other and collided in a massive hug. They stood there for several seconds before letting go, a wide smile on each of their faces.

  “Something is wrong with my memory,” said the Burgermaster, shaking his head. “It’s only been one year since you left to become adventurers and I’ve already forgotten about you! What kind of a leader am I? Thamus, Quintus, Cassia, and…”

  “Just us.” The armored man, Thamus, replied. He gave the older man a flat smile. They all did.

  “Right, so what brings you three back here? Did you get sick of adventuring and wanted to come home? I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

  The three laughed again. Quintus, the shadowy-faced one, spoke up next. “We’re actually part of the adventuring group that’s coming from the capital, and we just had to jump at the opportunity to visit home. So yeah, maybe we are a little bit homesick?”

  “Well there’s nothing wrong with that!” Karl gave the three a wide smile. “But there must’ve been quite a bit of competition to get that spot, I reckon?”

  The trio looked at each other awkwardly.

  “Well…” Cassia, the robed woman, began. “This job is actually supposed to be punishment detail, so there wasn’t exactly much competition.”

  Karl’s smile began to falter.

  Cassia quickly caught herself and raised her hands to comfort him. “Wait wait, we weren’t punished or anything! We really did volunteer for this job because we wanted to visit back home! Honest!”

  They all gave the Burgermaster their best sheepish grins. Eventually, he returned one of his own. “I believe you, I know you wouldn’t lie to me like that!” He took a second to collect his thoughts, and his mouth fell into a frown. “But if this really is a punishment, then might the other adventurers try and start trouble?”

  “As if they’d start trouble with us around?” Thamus let out another guffaw as he unsheathed his sword and held it in the air. Quintus did the same with a dagger that he pointed to the side, and Cassia with a red, glowing orb that appeared in her hand.

  “Haha!” Karl burst into laughter. “I remember when you all made that pose when you were kids! To think you’ve come so far that you can do it with real swords and spells now!”

  The trio slowly let their arms slowly fall, while doing their best to hide the red that was growing on their faces.

  “But really,” said Cassia. “The adventurer’s guild sent someone else who can keep everyone under control all by himself, he’s the leader for the dungeon raid.”

  “Mmh. Well, I believe you! But it might not be easy to keep everyone under control if there isn’t enough space to house them. I counted, and the half a week we got wasn’t enough time to build any more housing!”

  “Don’t worry about that,” replied Thamus. “I told the group about how large Rockfort is, so they all brought tents. A few of them even have portable housing!”

  “They also have plenty of rations,” added Quintus. “But with how bland they taste, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what they make a stink over.”

  “In that case, there’s nothing to worry about!” exclaimed the Burgermaster. “Our farmers have been working their butts off in the fields since the letter arrived, and there should be plenty of food for everyone!”

  “Speaking of food,” said Thamus. “Is Renard still running the tavern? I haven’t had his roast in ages!”

  “Of course! He’s planning on making enough for the adventurers, but it’ll take a while to butcher and prepare that much meat for it. It should be ready once you’ve all cleared the dungeon, of course! Now, I’ll head back into town to tell everyone that you’ve all arrived. Maybe you want to say hi to a few old faces before you meet back with the others?”

  “Yeah, that’d be good,” said Quintus.

  The trio slowly looked at each other with somber eyes and nodded, before returning a smile. It looked a little more bittersweet than before.